Somkiat Jandok may be remembered as the man who broke into jail to commit a crime.
The crime, according to an accusation by an inmate's relative, Tumma Boonmee from Ban Dung district in Udon Thani, was that "prison guard" Somkiat took her 20,000 baht as a bribe, and promised her that he would arrange a royal pardon to shorten the prison term of her cousin.
Mrs Tumma told police she met the 37-year-old Mr Somkiat, who claimed to be a prison officer, during a visit to the lockup in Muang district last Friday.
Sensing something wrong with the arrangement, she confessed to police, who mapped out a plan to trap and arrest Mr Somkiat.
Officers waited for him at the Tesco Lotus parking lot on Tuesday night, and had Mrs Tumma call him to the meeting. Mr Somkiat allegedly thought he would receive the bribe, but police had market all the banknotes as evidence.
Pol Col Kowit Charoenwattasak, superintendent of the Muang district police station, said on Wednesday that Mr Somkiat had been arrested on charges of tricking people into paying him money and impersonation.
The officer said Mr Somkiat was never a prison officer and added that the man had the intention to commit fraud. He was carrying a list of several prison inmates, which was seized as evidence during the arrest, he added.
Pol Col Kowit said Mr Somkiat confessed that he had been sentenced to 25 years in prison on drug charges in 2006, but was released in 2011 because of good conduct.
He also admitted that he had been pretended on numerous other occasions to be a corrupt prison guard, constantly changing his phone's sim card so that the people he tricked could not contact him.
Udon Thani Prison chief Pornwichian Somjit said that posters have already been put up at the building to warn visitors against trying to discuss royal pardons, noting that warders are not permitted to hold such talks.